Jakob Becker (entrepreneur)
Jakob Becker (* 1811 in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse ; † 1879 in Saint Petersburg ) was a piano maker of German descent. His patent, filed in 1839, on the iron frame built into the grand piano, which carries the strings, made the instruments more durable and easier to tune and thus successful in sales. Further patents and five-year protection periods for his inventions made his factory, which opened in Saint Petersburg in 1841, grow rapidly. At times it was the largest piano factory in Russia. His innovations and artistry had a significant impact on Russian culture and the piano industry of the 19th century. In 1918 the production of J. Becker pianos was stopped.
Life
Jakob Becker initially ran a piano workshop in Saint Petersburg. Becker pianos were increasingly widely recognized, not only in Saint Petersburg, but also throughout Russia, as well as in Poland and the Grand Duchy of Finland. Numerous improvements were the key to Becker's success, such as the invention of the pedal for impact sound. With this invention Jacob Becker achieved the privilege and patent right, which brought him greater prosperity. The invention of the cast iron frame led to a saving in wood when building the sash.
Nikolaus I's Russification policy and efforts to modernize Russian industry made it easy for Becker to sell his pianos on the domestic markets. Restrictive import duties since 1841 increased the cost of pianos manufactured in the rest of Europe and put Becker and a few other Petersburg piano makers in the position of serving an almost unlimited market. Furthermore, low wages and low taxes were a clear locational advantage for pianos made in Russia, while the prices of pianos made outside of Russia were much higher.
Jacob Becker handed the business over to his younger brother Franz in 1861. In 1871, he sold the factory to Michael A. Bietepage and Paul Peterson, who greatly expanded production. The factory moved from the former small factory premises at 36 Italian Street to large buildings on the Petersburg side of the Neva . The Becker factory differed from other piano companies in that all the steps involved in building future instruments were split up. In the factory there were several steam engines for woodworking, the iron and brass department, the assembly of mechanical parts, some of which were imported, and other features of the modern division of labor.
After a fire in 1889, Peterson resigned and Bietepage rebuilt the almost 50-year-old factory, but on Vasilyevsky Island . The 11,400. Instrument was completed in late 1891 and 250 people were employed.
From 1896 the J. Becker factory became supplier to the court of His Majesty the Emperor of Russia and supplier to Her Majesties the Emperor of Austria, King of Denmark, the King of Norway and the King of Sweden. The Becker company has received twelve awards, medals and diplomas at trade fairs and exhibitions.
Franz Liszt , Clara Schumann , Hans von Bülow , Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski or Claude Debussy and many well-known greats played on Becker pianos.
Nikolai Rimski-Korsakow was a particular fan of the Becker pianos . He is said to have played two of these instruments all his life.
In 1903 the factory was bought by K. Schroeder Pianofortefabrik, also operating in Saint Petersburg, but the new owner, being a German, was forced to leave the country in 1914.
In 1918 the factory was nationalized by the Soviet authorities and the Becker brand ceased to exist. After the Russian Civil War , parts of the plant were incorporated into the major Red October plant in 1924 .
Patents
In 1839, Jakob Becker patented square pianos in Bavaria in which the strings of characters lay under the soundboard . In addition, a metal frame was already placed next to wood. In 1844 Becker received a second patent for an improvement aimed at eliminating the knocking noise of the hammers. In 1848 he received the third patent, this time for the so-called “subordination” - the strings were not attached to the upper end of the vertebral bank, but now ran through the entire vertebral bank. In 1851 Becker received another patent for a modernized mechanism of the "British system". Despite the sale of his company, Becker applied for two more patents in Russia in 1874 and 1878.
literature
- Alfred Dolge: Pianos and their makers. Covina Publishing, 1911 Reprint, August 2014, ISBN 978-0-4862-2856-3 .
- Denis Lomtev: Germans in Russia's musical infrastructure . Lage (Westf.): BMV, 2012, pp. 90–99. ISBN 978-3935000833 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfred Dolge: Pianos and Their Makers: A Comprehensive History of the… Dover Verlag 1911, p. 256
- ^ Men, Women and Pianos: A Social History - Arthur Loesser - Google Books, p. 592
- ↑ The inland. A weekly for Liv, Esth and Curländische…, Volume 16 by Friedrich Georg von Bunge 1849, p. 907
- ↑ Anne Swartz Technological Muses: Piano Builders in Russia, 1810–1881 ( Memento of the original from November 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Фортепианная фабрика фирмы "Я. Беккер “ (Russian), accessed November 20, 2015
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Becker, Jakob |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-born piano maker |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1811 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Neustadt an der Weinstrasse , Germany |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1879 |
| Place of death | Saint Petersburg , Russia |